Email Author Karina Longworth

Awards

• 2011 - Southern California Journalism Awards/LA Press Club, published February 5, 2010

  "Sundance's Rebel Yell"

• 2011 - Southern California Journalism Awards/LA Press Club

  Film reviews

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2012 Stories by Karina Longworth

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  FEATURED STORY

  Safe House Review: With Denzel on Autopilot, Ryan Reynolds' Bod Takes Center Stage (Again)

  published Feb 08, 2012

  ​"He's sooo hot," the woman sitting next to me at the screening of Safe House sighed to her friend as the film's opening images of Ryan Reynolds working out flashed on the screen. She then went More >>

• Sundance Film Festival 2012 Wrap-up

  published February 2, 2012

  It's potentially dangerous to look at the lineup of the Sundance Film Festival (which ended Sunday) as a reflection of the character of... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Sundance Film Festival 2012: Chris Rock Talks to Barack Obama, and Other Random Festival Notes

  published Jan 27, 2012

  ​ After eight days in Park City, I'm back in Los Angeles; the festival continues through the weekend, with the awards announced Saturday night. Here are some notes on films I didn't get a chanc More >>

• FEATURED STORY

  Sundance Film Festival 2012: LCD Soundsystem's Last Show in Shut Up and Play the Hits

  published Jan 26, 2012

  ​ A mash-up of cinema and journalism, document and performance; a concert film sandwiched between a mission statement and a staged punctuation to a career: the LCD Soundsystem documentary Shut More >>

• Margaret Review

  published January 26, 2012

  A coming-of-age tale infused with post-9/11 anxiety, Margaret features Anna Paquin as Lisa, a 17-year-old whose role in a fatal Upper... More >>

• Declaration of War Review

  published January 26, 2012

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• Sundance Film Festival 2012: Marco Brambilla's Evolution (Megaplex) and the New Frontier

  published Jan 25, 2012

  ​The theme of the 2012 New Frontier -- the Sundance section devoted to installation work, experimental film and video and art utilizing/ exploring emergent technology -- is "Future Normal." At a More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Sundance Film Festival 2012: Beasts of the Southern Wild and Compliance

  published Jan 25, 2012

  ​ Broken social and economic systems, and the broken lives and homes they leave in their wake, have been a big theme at Sundance this year. Across documentaries and fiction features, broached di More >>

• Bingham Ray, Indie Film Distribution & Marketing Legend, Dies While Attending Sundance

  published Jan 23, 2012

  ​Jaw-dropping news came down around noon Park City time Monday, when Sundance issued a press release confirming that Bingham Ray -- indie film legend, co-founder of seminal '90s indie distributi More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Sundance Film Festival 2012: The Biggest Disappointment Thus Far, and a Mid-Festival Notebook Drop

  published Jan 22, 2012

  ​ With Monday marking the midway point of my stay in Park City, here's a notebook dump on a few films I haven't had a chance to write about at length. Hello I Must Be Going Thirty-something rec More >>

• Sundance Film Festival 2012: Detropia

  published Jan 22, 2012

  ​ The first image in Detropia, the excellent new documentary about the decline of Detroit from filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp), is of a conductor raising his baton to lead More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Sundance Film Festival 2012: Simon Killer and Keep The Lights On

  published Jan 21, 2012

  ​ The most divisive dramatic competition entry yet to screen at Sundance, Simon Killer is the second feature directed by Antonio Campos, director of Afterschool and producer of last year's Sund More >>

• Sundance Film Festival 2012: The Ambassador, and Experimental Methodology

  published Jan 21, 2012

  ​ Mads Brugger is sort of the VICE magazine version of Sasha Baron Cohen, as financed by Lars Von Trier. His last film was The Red Chapel, an exercise in hidden camera comedy with unusual socio More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Sundance Film Festival 2012: Queen of Versailles Review

  published Jan 20, 2012

  ​ Queen of Versailles, the latest film from documentarian and photographer Lauren Greenfield (Thin), follows David and Jackie Siegel, the 70-something Westgate timeshare mogul and his 40-someth More >>

• Miss Bala Review

  published January 19, 2012

  Mexico's submission for the Foreign-Language Film Oscar race, Gerardo Naranjo's Miss Bala literally spells out the destiny of its... More >>

• Channing Tatum and Gina Carano in Steven Soderbergh's Haywire

  published January 19, 2012

  "Steven [Soderbergh] asked me, 'Why is Angelina Jolie the only female action star in the world?' I told him, 'I don't know,' and he said,... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Sundance Film Festival 2012: An Experiment

  published Jan 18, 2012

  ​ Tomorrow I leave Los Angeles for Park City, Utah, where I'll attend and report on the Sundance Film Festival for the seventh time in as many years. As a film critic and the editor of the Week More >>

• Punk Videos and DIY Video Art at Alternative Projections

  published January 12, 2012

  A complement to MOCA's "Under the Big Black Sun" exhibition, the Alternative Projections program "Strange Notes and Nervous Breakdowns:... More >>

• Paul F. Tompkins, Garry Shandling, Margaret Cho and Other Comedians Show Their Favorite Movies at Cinefamily

  published January 12, 2012

  "Comedians are the new rock stars!!!" breathlessly gushes three-fifths of the Internet. But this weekend at Cinefamily, comedians will endanger... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Margaret Starring Anna Paquin, the Best Film of 2011, Gets a Run at Cinefamily

  published Jan 11, 2012

  ​ Remember Margaretr The Anna Paquin-starring drama was written in 2003, shot in 2005 and then given only a token release last September: on screen for just two weeks, with almost no marketing o More >>

• Godard's '60s Revisited: The Rebirth of Cool

  published January 5, 2012

  Click here for "Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  10 Movies We're Excited About in 2012

  published Dec 21, 2011

  ​We know -- you're excited about The Dark Knight Rises. And The Avengers. And Hunger Games. So are we. We're also excited about a lot of other movies whose marketing campaigns have not inundated More >>

• The Skin I Live In Review: Pedro Almodovar's Plastic Surgeon-as-Mad Scientist Movie Starring Antonio Banderas

  published Oct 13, 2011

  ​ The morality of the mad-scientist tale has remained more or less fixed since the beginning of sound cinema: From Dr. Frankenstein's hubristic claim to "know what it feels like to be God," to J More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Footloose Review: A Film to Help Mothers Teach Daughters to Date Studious, Drug-Free Gymnasts Over Stoned, Sleazy Older Dudes

  published Oct 12, 2011

  ​ In hindsight, the 1984 hit Footloose -- starring Kevin Bacon and directed by Herbert Ross -- along with its contemporary, Flashdance, can be seen as the link between the old Hollywood model of More >>

• Toronto Film Festival: Moneyball and the Fetishizing of Spreadsheets

  published Sep 15, 2011

  ​ "It's hard not to be romantic about baseball," admits Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics played, in career-best form, by Brad Pitt in Bennett Millers' Moneyball.This lin More >>